Book-index



2 Sheets-Sheet 1. J. HON. BOOKINDEX.

.(No Model.)

No. 561,888. Patented June 9, 1896.

,x wwrafzaPolv/v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

J. HON. BOOK INDEX.

No. 561,888. Patented June 9, 1896.

CHA XXXXXXXX ll UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

JOSEPH HON, OF NAPOLEON, KENTUCKY.

BOOK-lNDEX.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 561,888, dated June 9, 1896.

Application fil d November 14,1894. gerial No. 528,815. (No model.)

T at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH HON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Napoleon, in the county of Gallatin and State of Kentucky, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bookdndexes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invent-ion has relation to that class of book-indexes in which the book is divided into sections, each of which has a designating principal notch and the name or other proper desig nation of said section suitably delineated upon the part of the leaf at the end of said notch and exposed thereby; and the invention consists in certain novel features hereinafter described and claimed.

One object of the invention is to provide an index which will enable the user to turn to any desired section of the book without being required to look at the designating principal notches, and which will obviate the necessity of printing the names of the sections on the several pages of the book and on the outer side of the cover thereof.

Another object of the invention is to provide an index, especially adapted for dictionarics,which will allow the subordinate notches that refer to the parts of the sections to be made much smaller than is practical with those heretofore provided.

These objects are accomplished by the constructions illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a view of a Bible provided with my improved index, said Bible being opened at the center of a section. Fig. 2 is a view of an open dictionary embodying my invention. Fig. 3 is an edge view of a book, showing the relative arrangement of principal notches therein. Fig. i is a view of a Bible opened at a place near the beginning of a section, and Fig. 5 is a view of a Bible opened at the end of a section and shows the lists referring to the principal section imprinted on rigid parts of the covers.

The same letters of reference designate the same parts in all the figures.

A designates the book considered as a whole,

sions of the covers.

- The book is divided into sections, each of which has a designating principal n oteh B and subordinate notches B. Said notches B refer to the sections and commence at the center of their respective sections and extend in one direction only therefrom,whereby the book may be opened to the center of the desired section, and the subordinate notches B increase successively in numberin the pages of the respective sections up to the central page thereof and then decrease step by step from said central page to the end of the section. These subordinate notches B refer to the parts of the section, and in Fig. 1 they are shown as disclosing the number of the chapter and verse at the top or bottom of one of the pages referred to thereby, while in Fig. 2 they are each shown as extending through a group of twenty pages and as disclosing the number of the page at one end of said group. The former is preferred for books of certain sizes and classes, of which the Holy Bible has been selected as a type, while the latter is especially intended for dictionaries and books of similar size and character. While each group preferably contains twenty pages, yet this number is not material to my invention and may be varied at will, and, in fact, I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself under any circumstances to the employment of groups of pages referred to by a sin gle subordinate notch.

One branch of the present invention relates to a means whereby the user may place his thumb or finger in the proper notch to turn to any section to which reference is desired from any other section of the book without having to look at the notches themselves and without having to print several lists of the names or designations of the sections of the book. To accomplish this err tremely advantageous object, four exposed lists O O D D are provided, each of two of which lists, as O D, consists of the names or other proper designations of all of the sections contained in one half of the book, and each of the other two of which lists, 0 D, consists of the names or designations of all of the sections in the other half of the a a the covers thereof, and a a the cxten- I ICO book, and said lists are located one at each end of each cover of the book and have the names or designations arranged upon them opposite the notches to which they respectively refer. .It will be apparent that with this arrangement when the book is open the names or designations of one or the other list of each pair of lists will be opposite the notches to which they respectively refer, so that by them a guide is provided which makes it unnecessary to turn the book endwise and look at the notches when it is desired to turn from any one section of the book to any other section thereof. Thus, taking as an example a book containing'the New Testament and the Psalms, and assuming that said book is open at the section thereof containing Revelation (which is about the center of the rear half of the book) and it is desired to turn therefrom to Hebrews or to any other section in the rear half of the book, but forward of the section opened to, the user looks at list 0 and finds thereon the designation of the section desired opposite the notch to which it refers; but if he desires to turn from Revelation to Psalms (which latter in the present edition is in the rear end of the book) he looks at list D and by placing his thumb in the notch directly opposite the means used to designate Psalms and opening the book he will find that he has opened the book to the proper section, and if he desires to turn from any section in the rear half of the book to any section in the front half thereof he looks at list 0, and by using as a guide, the name thereon of the section desired he can readily place his thumb or finger in the proper notch and thereby open the book to the section required.

If the book is open at a section in the front half thereof and it is desired to refer to a section in said front half, list 0 or D is employed, according to whether the section desired is forward or rearward of the section opened to, while if he wishes to refer to any section in the rear half of the book list D is used as a guide.

WVhen the book is closed but the lists exposed, any desired section may be turned to with equal facility without having to look at the notches. In a dictionary provided with these lists the arrangement of the designations will be similar to that described; but said designations will preferably be letters of the alphabet, although I wish it understood that the scope of myinvention is not limited to the use of words or letters as the designations, but includes any suitable designations when they are so arranged upon four lists (each of two of which contain the designations of the sections in one half of the book, and each of the other two of which contain the designations of the sections in the other half of the book) that the designations of one or the other of each pair of lists will be opposite the notches to which they respectively refer and each notch will be opposite a designation on the list therefor. These lists are preferably imprinted upon hinged flaps a", which arecapable of being folded over the edges of the leaves when the book is not in use and of being folded back into the plane of the covers a when the book is open, as by means of this construction the book may be locked when closed and the edges of the leaves protected and the principal notches hidden from view; but this is not essential, as they may be imprinted or otherwise suitably delineated upon rigid extensions of the cover or upon non-stiffen ed material suitably connected with the covers, so as to fold out and expose the lists when reference thereto is desired, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

'With the lists above described it is not absolutely essential that the names of the sections be also imprinted upon the parts of the pages disclosed by the designating-notches B; but this may be done, if desired.

In the improved form of my index (especially adapted for dictionaries) shown in Fi g. 2 upon the parts of the leaves disclosed by said subordinate notches B are preferably placed the numbers of the respective pages or other suitable page designations, and on. the central page of the section, to which page the principal notch B opens, as above described, is imprinted or otherwise suitably delineated a list E of the words or other designations at the top or bottom of the pages of the sect-ion, said words or designations being arranged opposite the subordinate notches B" to which they respectively refer. By this means when the book is open at the center of the section there will be seen a list of the names at the top or bottom of each group of pages of the section opposite the notches and page-numbers to which they refer.

From the above the advantages of my in vention and its adaptability to books of various classes will readily be seen, and a further disclosure is therefore unnecessary.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is 1. A book divided into sections having designating-notches, said book also having lists at its top and bottom, two of said lists each consisting of designations of the sections in one half of the book and the other two lists each consisting of designations of all the sections in the other half of the book, said design ations being arranged opposite the notches to which they respectively refer, substantially as described and for the purpose specified.

2. A book having a principal notch extending in one direction only from the center of its section, and also having, in the sides of its leaves, notches increasing successively in number from one end of the section to said center thereof and decreasing step by step from said center to the end of the section: page designations on the parts of the several leaves exposed by said subordinate notches;

and designations respectively arranged upon said center page of the section opposite the subordinate notches to which they refer, substantially as described, and for the purposes specified.

3. An indexed book, divided into a numberof sections each of which has a designating principal notch, said notches opening the book at the center of the respective sections,

four lists of designations referring to said principal notches, two of said lists each consisting of designations of the sections in one half of the book and the other two lists each consisting of designations of all the sections 

